Corporate Board Ethnic Diversity and Firm Performance: Perspectives of Board Members and Managers from The Midlands Province of Zimbabwe.

Corporate boards have always been considered to be the drivers behind any company success. The performance of the boards has strong bearing on the performance of the firm. To this end, the composition and diversity of corporate boards has become an issue for study over the last decades. Studies have however concentrated more on demographic variables like age, gender, education and CEO duality among others. Ethnic diversity has received very little attention especially in Zimbabwe. This research therefore aimed at finding the effect of board ethnic diversity for companies in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. The Midlands Province is home to people of different ethnic or tribal backgrounds and this made the province the best area for this study. The research found that, generally, board or management ethnic diversity has positive effect on firm performance. However this is different for the Midlands Province due to some latent tribal tensions. We cannot put it any better than Thata (2016) who said, “Deep hatred among ethnic groups, non-tolerance of tribal and race still co-exist(ence). Some semblance of working together among ethnic groups is wholly cosmetic..” .The tribal tension negatively impact on board or management performance resulting in negative firm performance. The study concluded that where there are tribal or ethnic tensions, latent or otherwise, management or board appointment should be preceded by proper induction. The induction shall be followed by conflict resolution strategies. For the Midlands province, the study recommended a truth and reconciliation commission headed by the Zimbabwe Council of Churches.